Experimental Poverty Measures, 2005: Public-Use Dataset Notes These notes are for analysts who use the public-use file that contains alternative poverty estimates for calendar year 2005 and other variables related to poverty measurement. Corresponding data based on the Census Bureau's internal datafiles may be found at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povmeas/tables.html. The estimates included in these files are an update of the estimates in the report P60-227 (Alternative Poverty Estimates in the United States: 2003 -- available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/altpovest/altpovestrpt.html) that were based on recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel. Three files are available from the Census Bureau's poverty measurement 2005 dataset FTP site: 1. povpu05.sas7bdat 2. povpu05.sas 3. povpu05.lst The SAS dataset, povpu05.sas7bdat, was created using SAS version 8.2 on a UNIX platform. Contained in the SAS dataset are variables used to construct these experimental poverty measures. For details about the construction of the measures and their component elements, please refer to the P60-227 report (referenced above) and to P60-205, Experimental Poverty Measures: 1990 to 1997 (available at http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p60-205.pdf), especially Appendix C. All variables in the public-use SAS dataset have variable labels, and, where appropriate, value labels. Household, family, and person-level ID variables are also contained in the dataset to allow analysts to re-merge the file with the 2006 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) public-use file from which the datasets were created. The SAS program povpu05.sas reads in the SAS dataset, and, for illustrative purposes, also displays the final SAS data steps used to create the experimental poverty measures already contained in the dataset. (The recodes testpoor1 - testpoor13, created within the program, replicate poor1 - poor13 which are already on the file.) These steps are shown to help analysts replicate the experimental poverty measures and to provide guidance for those who wish to appropriately recombine various elements (i.e., thresholds and income definitions) to view alternative poverty measures. INCOME VARIABLE AND TOPCODED VARIABLE CAVEATS: It is important to note that many of the poverty rates generated using these public-use SAS datasets differ slightly from those shown in Census Bureau publications. These differences occur because some public-use variables (such as the variables for total income, income by source, and taxes) are topcoded to protect respondents' confidentiality. To illustrate, the SAS output file povpu05.lst (available on the FTP site) shows two recode variables for official poverty -- poorpub and poor1. Each recode uses different CPS ASEC variables to construct the official poverty measure. The first, poorpub, is a recode of PERLIS, while poor1 was computed by dividing the CPS family income variable by the threshold variable (FTOTVAL / FPOVCUT). The two methods are conceptually identical; however, poorpub produces output consistent with Census Bureau reports while poor1 does not. The PERLIS variable (used to create poorpub) uses un-topcoded income, and protects respondents' confidentiality by grouping them into broad categories by their ratio of income to poverty, whereas poor1 uses the topcoded income variable, FTOTVAL. Therefore, when computing alternative resource definitions--which by necessity use topcoded variables as components--please bear these differences in mind. GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLE CAVEATS: Three issues with geographic variables warrant the user's attention: a change in sample design in the CPS ASEC public-use file meant that complete information on metropolitan/nonmetropolitan status was not available for every area; a change in geographic concepts prompted a new set of geographic variables; and last, the geographic-adjustment indices for poverty thresholds (geo2)were constructed with estimated metropolitan status information and with appropriate suppression of confidential data. See P60-216, Experimental Poverty Measures: 1999, available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p60-216.pdf, for further information on the methodsused to construct the geographic indices for the poverty thresholds. In light of the caveats listed above, the file povpu05.lst shows unweighted counts of the number of people in poverty under each definition, and their corresponding percentages. Users can check their output using these unweighted numbers.